What’s Going On Is Irrespective of Gender

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: August 12, 2016

Chicago newspaper reports story relevant to Chicago, Internet outraged

Wife of a Bears’ lineman wins a bronze medal today in Rio Olympics https://t.co/kwZoGY0xAX pic.twitter.com/VZrjOvr80h

— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) August 7, 2016

Rational people look at that and understand what’s going on here. Unfortunately, rationality has never been the Internet’s strong suite. People were outraged that the Trib referred to Corey Cogdell-Unrein as the wife of a Chicago Bears player in a tweet saying they were diminishing her achievement. Corey Cogdell-Unrein is from Alaska and took bronze in trap shooting. One might have a point if we were talking about the Daily Frosty or whatever newspaper they have in Alaska, but we’re not. We’re talking about the Chicago Tribune. Was there anything about this other than Codgell-Unrein being Mitch Unrein’s wife that makes this story relevant enough in Chicago to merit a fully story. Nope. Not even close. We’re talking about a bronze medal in something nobody other than the competitors and their friends and families care at all about for 206 out of every 208 weeks and barely more than that during the other two. The logic here is the same if we were talking about the husband of a Chicago Sky player winning a medal in a niche event.

LeBron James would like a word with you

Ladies and gentlemen, we have here a strong contender for the most prisoner-of-the-momenty-tweet ever.

Your argument that Phelps is not the greatest American athlete. Go.

— Victim of Fate (@gbdawkins) August 12, 2016

First of all, there are roughly 873 swimming events, so medal counts are artificially inflated a bit. What Phelps has done is definitely impressive, but can we really put him ahead of LeBron, regardless of the criteria? Not a chance. If we’re talking about greatest American athletes of all-time, then we bring Michael Jordan into play. Also, if we’re talking in terms of skill in a sport, then guys like Tiger and Brady come into play. If we’re talking sheer athletic ability, half the NFL is ahead of Phelps, and that’s probably a conservative estimate. I used the same reasoning when Serena Williams was the topic of conversation, but the next 300-pound man who can cover 40 yards in under 5 seconds that Michael Phelps has running full speed at him in his sport will be the first. Congrats to Phelps (by the way, he just broke a nearly 2,200-year-old record Thursday – most individual Olympic titles), good for the Michigan guy, and he’s certainly near the top of the list of athletes to play a sport (although George Carlin might have had something to say about that), but the greatest? No way.

How does one score this?

This happened in a Dayton Dragons game. The Dragons are the Class A affiliate of the Reds.